CHAP. XVI. 



The Millet/ Way ; Solar System*, or ft plurality oj 

 Worlds. 



HAT lucid whitish zone, which is seen in the 

 firmament among the fixed stars, must have for a long 

 while attracted the attention of the ancients, and oc- 

 casioned them to advance a great many conjectures 

 about the reason of it, and among the various opinions 

 respecting it, many without doubt must to us appear 

 groundless, since one only can be true. But this kind 

 of deficiency is what will befal genius in every age, 

 however bright, and especially those who appeared in 

 remote ages. A course of centuries so familiarizes the 

 discovery of any truth, after it hath gained the ge- 

 neral consent, that we are astonished men of real abi- 

 lity should ever have hesitated about things which we 

 have known from our infancy; and we never give 

 ourselves the trouble to think, that the day perhaps 

 shall come, when the ideas of Locke and Leibnitz, 

 and those of the Newtouians, respecting attraction, 

 and of our gl her naturalists upon other subjects, will 

 be regarded^y posterity as things so obvious, that 

 they will be amazed how such great men could for any 

 time resist such evidence* Should any one of us ap- 

 pear to them to have discerned the truth in those points 

 which are at present in debate, how many of us will 



